WILHELMINA BARNS-GRAHAM (1912-2004)
Monreale, Sicily
signed and dated Barns-Graham W. 1955 (lower left)
pencil and watercolour
46.2 x 57.5 cm (18 1/4 x 22 1/2 in)

PROVENANCE:
Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Charitable trust, St Andrews, No. 1665
with Art First, London, where purchased by the present owner
Private Collection, London

After completing her studies at the Edinburgh College of Art in the 1930s, Barns-Graham joined the St Ives group of artists Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth, Naum Gabo, Alfred Wallis, Roger Hilton and Bryan Winter, among others. In the 1950s she travelled to Italy along with her husband, the poet David Lewis. These visits informed some of her most exciting drawings from the period. Monreale (Sicily) is a beautiful example of the artist's subtle use of colour and simple lines when capturing the atmosphere of a landscape. In the 1960s she produced a series of abstract, geometric and organic compositions which, along with her masterful draughtsmanship from the 1950s, place her at the forefront of British Modernism.